Facebook has announced its Q4 2012 financial results, with the social network leader generating $1.59 billion in revenue.
It made earnings of 17 cents per share and revenue that increased by 40 percent to $1.59 billion when compared to 2011's Q4. Wall Street expected it to make revenue of $1.53 billion. Net profit decreased by 79 percent to $64 million. Facebook's mobile revenue, meanwhile, accounted for 23 percent of all advertising revenue in the fourth quarter.
The firm generated $1.33 billion in advertising revenue, which is 84 percent of its total revenue. It made around $306 million from mobile ad revenue, as well as receiving $256 million from payments and other fees.
Excluding share-based compensation, Facebook's costs and expenses increased by 67 percent to $849 million. Research and development accounted for 19 percent of expenses in the quarter, an increase of 11 percent from 2011.
Facebook now boasts 1.06 billion monthly active users and 618 million daily active users (DAUs). Both of those figures represent a jump of 25 percent when compared to Q4, 2011. Facebook saw mobile monthly active members increase to 680 million, a jump of 57 percent year-over-year. For the first time since its inception, Facebook's mobile DAUs exceeded web DAUs for the first time.
